Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Not in Vegas
Jake came down with some sort of weird flu bug — fever, fatigue, vomiting, but no upper respiratory symptoms. We decided to cancel everything (and the damn airlines have upped the fees to $180 per person . . . wasn’t that long ago I remember it being $50 per person) which was for the best. Yesterday afternoon he wasn’t on the computer. He was sleeping. That’s how I know my son is sick.
Not much to do this weekend; I’m thinking of seeing True Grit, which got a whopping 95 over at Rotten Tomatoes. I’m poking around in the books I bought to research my writing project, plotting, plotting, thinking. And I’m roasting a boneless leg of lamb for dinner tonight — this recipe, or something quite like it. (I did look at the turkeys today, which are appealing only because they’re so cheap. But then I remembered that no one in this family, and I do mean no one, likes turkey.)
So to all my goyische friends, Merry Christmas! And the rest of you can enjoy your godless holidays too.
D.
Our boy was down with something similar – he slept most of yesterday, or lay limply on the sofa. He shook it off quickly, though, and is back to his usual bouncy self this morning.
We’re bringing the turkey to my sister’s house for the family dinner tonight – it’s in the oven now after brining overnight in this:
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Chef+Patrick+Dore+Turkey+Brine/4012394/story.html
It’s a big ol’ bird, because we all loves us some roast turkey!
Hope Jake’s feeling better soon. Happy holidays!
How did your turkey come out?
It was THE BEST TURKEY EVARRRRRR!!!
Actually, I think it was the best we’ve ever made. That brine has about a third the salt of others I’ve seen, which meant the pan drippings could be used for gravy (instead of a recreation of the Dead Sea), and the bird was juicy and very flavourful. We cooked the bird at home, then bundled it up in its pan and drove an hour to my sister’s for dinner. We didn’t eat it til almost 4 hours after it came out of the oven, and it was still hot. The skin, sadly, had all the crispness steamed out of it, but was still delicious. We got a 16lb bird, figuring that would leave plenty of leftovers with 10 adults for dinner. We were wrong – there was just about enough for a couple of sandwiches by the time we were done.
So, yeah, definitely worth trying. I think we’re going to try a chicken next in the same brine, just cutting the proportions.